Cushman & Wakefield senior managing director Hendrik Zessel learned many things spending just a single night on the streets as part of last month’s Covenant House Sleep Out: Executive Edition. “Cardboard works,” he says, citing a pertinent example. “It helps take some of the cold off the concrete.” The experience gave Hendrik a deeper appreciation for things normally taken for granted (food to eat, toilets, showers) and gave him more compassion for those who live on the street. This year’s Sleep Out generated $683k to help struggling youth on Vancouver streets.

Here are the 50-plus Sleep Out participants. “It’s a good way to get a sense of what kids who live on the street go through on a daily basis,” says Hendrik, “even if we experienced a very homogenized version.” He was impressed with the passion of Covenant House staffers, who make every dollar donated to the organization count. “We deal with first-world problems in our industry; they’re dealing with basic needs.” Hendrik was C&W Vancouver’s sole Sleep Out participant this year, though the firm is an annual event donor. He plans on persuading more peers to take part next year. “There’s a big difference between talking about it and actually experiencing it.”